Posts Tagged "In The Media"

On May 25, 2010, the speaker of the Latvian Parliament, Gundars Daudze, was in Washington DC. Speaker Daudze was here as part of an official visit of Nordic and Baltic Parliament speakers to the United States. While in Washington the speaker visited with House leaders such as Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi; the Foreign Affairs Committee chair, Howard L. Berman; as well as Bill Delahunt, who is a member of the subcommittee on Europe.

On the evening of May 25, Speaker Daudze was a keynote speaker at the Embassy of the Republic of Latvia, where he addressed an audience of Latvian and US citizens on a variety of issues including cooperation in the Baltic- Nordic region in areas such as democratization and energy security, the upcoming elections in Latvia, as well as his desire to promote and strengthen trade between Latvia and the Baltic-Nordic region and the United States.

During the evening event Speaker Daudze took time to congratulate iiGrowth CEO Gustav Plato, for his role in founding the Latvian Chamber of Commerce in the Americas. He presented Gustav with a special commemorative coin celebrating 20 years of renewed independence for the Republic of Latvia. Also in attendance were Latvian Chamber CFO, Juris Lazdins; as well as honorary Latvian Chamber member, Latvia’s Ambassador to the United States and Mexico, Andrejs Pildegovics.

The iiGrowth LLC’s Global Innovation Center is designed to provide firms with the tools and expertise to generate new ideas, innovate, and develop strategies for growing the bottom line and core competencies.

The center is focused on bringing best of breed solutions to global businesses and has identified a need to make social network analysis (SNA) or organizational network analysis (ONA) accessible and affordable to businesses across the globe.

iiGrowth has created a strategic partnership with Keyhubs, a firm that is an innovator in social network analysis, to offer solutions for mapping informal (human) networks in the workplace. Using Keyhubs’ unique methodologies and tools now makes it possible to uncover hidden talent, expose key influencers and identify high-performing teams to help organizations realize their full potential.

iiGrowth’s program is founded on the principle that establishing relationships with best-in-class organizations, such as Keyhubs, will offer superior solutions to the market, faster, with lower cost, and with reduced risk. iiGrowth’s Idea and Innovation Center will be launching a series of partnerships in 2010 and 2011 that will offer our clients a one-stop shop for solutions and also look to build collaborative communities.

Keyhubs Founder, Vikas Narula, stated, “we have made significant investments to create a game changing solution in the field of organizational development. The companies that have already been introduced to Keyhubs have been amazed by its clarity and ability to provide them with valuable information on the true workings of the organization. We admit, we are biased, but this product offers a competitive advantage for the early adopters. For those companies that come later, this will be the solution that will help them level the playing field. We are excited about the offering and expanding it globally. In that light, we are also very pleased about connecting with iiGrowth to help us bring the solution to global markets.

USA and UK based company iiGrowth LLC and the Sentio Ltd., based in Tallinn, form a strategic partnership to promote the Baltic region. Together, iiGrowth and Sentio will shorten the time to market for Estonian business entering US and UK markets. In addition, we are working together to help firms enter the Baltic market. iiGrowth, which has been working in Latvia, is now expanding its base of operations to also work with Estonian enterprises. iiGrowth has been working with Mobile Now (whose U.S. leadership team is of Estonian heritage) for the last several years in the Washington DC region. Sentio and iiGrowth believe that the timing is right to escalate cooperative efforts, as Estonia and Latvia have a number of cooperative agreements in place to partner on an international scale.

iiGrowth CEO Gustav Plato stated; “We are very pleased to accelerate our efforts to link with Estonian markets. We believe the Baltic region offers attractive business partners and that Tallinn is certainly one of the leading Baltic Innovation Centers. Sentio, which is based in Tallinn, offers a natural extension for iiGrowth. We are already working with the Ventspils High Technology Park and Incubator, which also collaborates across the Baltic Region, and this also extends our base camp in the Baltic region. It was natural to have iiGrowth and Sentio form a strategic partnership. Having a strategic partnership with Sentio to promote the Baltic region will help business acceleration in both directions.”

iiGrowth will be attending the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce (MCCC) after hours program on April 14, 2010 in Rockville, Maryland. MCCC is considered the voice of business for Montgomery County, which is one of the wealthiest counties in the DC Metro region as well as the United States. For upcoming events visit:The Montgomery County Chamber

iiGrowth introduces US and EU clients to DC Metro region economic development opportunities. Business Over Breakfast™, is a government sector “just networking” breakfast event that is a superb networking event. iiGrowth will be at the Tyson’s Corners event at the Tower Club on April 14, 2010. For upcoming events visit: The American Small Business Council

Yes you can! Rockville based MobileNOW! is a sparkling example of how a business originating in the Baltic States can thrive in the US. Their showcase pilot in the DC Metro area is an example of how this Baltic to US connection can work. They made the right investments and commitment to learn about the local market and tailored their market entry strategy based on the local requirements. This has not been an overnight effort, but rather several years of dedication to the market and its customers.
MobileNOW!’s pay-by-cell system ParkNOW! was selected for a 3 month pilot project in Montgomery County, Maryland. The pilot which began on January 4, is being conducted in downtown Bethesda, in one of the city’s most well travelled locations, encompassing some 1250 parking spaces, including Garage 57, Lot 31, and on-street meters along Bethesda, Woodmont and Elm streets (note: a frequent destination for iiGrowth). This pilot represents ParkNOW! ‘s largest U.S. installation to date. Says Krista Tassa, President of MobileNOW, “we were delighted to launch this project in Montgomery County since Bethesda is a vibrant community well suited to adoption of new technologies. Well over a thousand users have already registered for the service and experienced the convenience of not having to search for coins to pay for parking and being able to extend parking sessions remotely.

Rick Siebert, Chief of the Property Development and Planning Section of MCDOT, said “We conducted a full RFP process to select our vendor for the Pay By Cell Pilot program and we are happy to have selected Rockville-based MobileNOW! We have been surprised by the buzz the Pilot has already created in the media, among so many civic groups and individual parkers.

iiGrowth will be attending Ruby Nation this week. We are working with clients in EU with an interest in building lasting partnerships in the United States. iiGrowth works with companies in the EU and the United States to define new business opportunities. We leverage our vast network of contacts to build the strongest service delivery teams for end user clients. See you at Ruby Nation or contact us at iiGrowth.

USA and UK based company iiGrowth and the Ventspils High Technology Park (VHTP) are partnering to bring international solutions to the Latvian market. Together, we are scanning the globe for world class business partners for Latvian enterprises. The purpose of this scan is to identify new business solutions in science and research, defense, and creating new innovation and competency centers in Latvia.

There are several near term opportunities for Latvian and international businesses to form cooperative agreements.

The ERDF is sponsoring science and research projects ranging from 70-492 thousands Lats (up to 1 million USD). These are co-financing funds and project proposals in cooperation with universities must be submitted by December 14, 2009.

The network of business incubators in Latvia supports high tech companies to start business operations in Latvia, by offering SMEs qualitative infrastructure on reduced tariffs and co-financing for research and new product development.

The Investment and Development Agency of Latvia is preparing to solicit ideas/projects regarding the development of competency centers in Latvia. For example, Space, is a competency that the VHTP has already been developing for several years.

These and other focal areas are just the beginning of the new business opportunities and investment climate in Latvia. The Baltic Tiger is coming back and VHTP and iiGrowth are working together to be part of this economic resurgence. If you have an idea or capability that you would like to further explore, please contact us for a confidential consultation.

iiGrowth’s Marketing and Communications Practice has been engaged by the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia (LIAA). iiGrowth is providing communications consulting services for the LIAA in the Information Technology and Electrical Engineering and Electronics industry sectors. We are very pleased to be able to support LIAA, which is considered one of the premier investment promotion intermediaries in the world.

In May 2009, the World Bank published its Global Investment Promotion Benchmarking report. The report compared over 200 of the world’s leading investment promotion organizations. In this competition, the LIAA has been identified as one of the top 10 performing national Investment Promotion Intermediaries (IPI’s) in the World. iiGrowth is excited to be working with LIAA.

iiGrowth has been engaged to provide readability testing and translation/language services in EU. We are providing translation support in Latvian and English and conducting market research of patient information leaflets. This engagement is a hybrid of our Marketing and Communications (MarCom) Practice and Pharma vertical Practice area. Our team’s strong communication skills and vertical industry knowledge were critical skills needed by our world class client.

On August 13, 2009, representatives from the American Latvian Association and the Latvian Chamber of Commerce in the Americas met with Ambassador Designate Judith Garber. The group included ALA President Dr. Juris Mežinskis, ALA Information Branch Chief, J

In May, 2009, iiGrowth CEO, Gustav Plato addressed the participants of the US Baltic Foundation’s annual gala. During this presentation he focused on the role of the Chamber in growing the Baltic Brand with a vision to increase trade between the Americas and Latvia ten-fold.

Recently, the Greater Washington Initiative (GWI) developed a series of videos entitled “Power Profiles”. We highlighted GWI as one of the organization’s that has extensive knowledge and insights into the Washington DC metropolitan area. GWI is is a “regional economic development, marketing and research organization that promotes the Greater Washington region as the premier business destination”.

One of the videos is by Matt Erskine, who is the Executive Director of the Greater Washington Initiative (GWI). Matt joined GWI in May of 2008. Matt and Gustav Plato, CEO, of iiGrowth LLC, worked together at Coopers & Lybrand Consulting (now IBM Consulting). After many years, their paths have crossed again with respect to mutual interests to promote the Washington DC metropolitan area as a location that must be considered when thinking about entry into the US market. In the video, Matt discusses his views on why the Washington region is strong, stable, resilient, diverse, and growing. Other videos are available for viewing at GWI’s News and Events Page.

In addition to offering USA market entry and other expert consulting services, iiGrowth is increasingly expanding its focus to offer assistance to firms wishing to enter the UK market. We can help you with Market Readiness Analysis, Rapid Market Assessment, Entry Planning and Implementation Support.

The United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) is the world’s sixth largest economy and the European Union’s third largest, following Germany and France. London is the world’s leading financial center with the greatest concentration of foreign bank branches on the planet. Most multinational corporations oversee their European operations from a headquarters in the UK. The domestic market in the UK is also of great interest to a foreign company considering expansion abroad. The economy is highly developed with vibrant and sophisticated commerce at all levels.

UK Trade and Investment lists many reasons why the United Kingdom is the leading investment destination for companies expanding their business. Setting up a business is a relatively rapid and straightforward process. Taxation is quite favorable – corporate tax is among the lowest in the industrialized world. The labor market is flexible, barriers to entrepreneurship are few and the UK is second only to the USA in terms of innovative research.

ii Growth LLC is located in Bethesda, Maryland, is in the heart of the U.S.’s most vibrant economic sector, the Washington DC Metropolitan Area, which includes Washington D.C. Northern Virginia, and Suburban Maryland. For international companies looking to enter the US market, the Washington Metropolitan Area offers many advantages.

According to June 2009 study by the Greater Washington Initiative (GWI) the region led the nation in job growth over the last 10 years and is the 4th largest in terms of Gross Regional Product (GRP) and population. The region is also home to the largest IT cluster in the United States as well as large and growing biotech and aerospace industries.

The region has a number of attributes that make it attractive to international firms:

Access to markets

A productive labor force

University and R&D support

Ease of transportation

Assistance in meeting the right people

A desirable place to live

The area has tremendous reach. It is an international communications hub, with excellent air access internationally. Over 60% of the U.S. population lives within a one-day drive/2-hour flight of Washington D.C.

Because of its geographic location and size, economic strength, large number of knowledge workers (over 1 million), universities and educations systems, and proximity to the US Federal Government there is a well developed ecosystem for doing business. This breadth also supports and enables leveraging significant cross-market opportunities that allow for accelerated market growth. The government and technology markets are particularly attractive for US market entry and can leverage one another.

Federal, State, and Local Markets

The Federal Government is the largest buyer in the world. The U.S. federal government market has grown 250 percent from 2000 to 2008. It is projected that the government will buy more than $500 billion USD in 2009. The federal government will continue to be the largest single buyer of goods and services in the world. The Washington Metropolitan area is the largest buyer within the Federal market with California being a distant second.

In addition, the Metropolitan areas boasts strong regional and local governments including Anne Arundel, Frederick, Montgomery and Prince Georges Counties in Maryland, as well as Fairfax, Alexandria (city) Arlington, Fairfax, Loudon, and Prince William in Virginia. Many of the counties also are home for technology innovation centers and incubators.

Each of the regions is also home for international businesses. For example:

WGI reports over 700 foreign firms doing business in Washington Metro Area

Fairfax County reports it has over 360 foreign businesses.

Montgomery County reports it has over 100 foreign owned businesses (550 in the state of Maryland).

Technology Industry

According to the GWI June, 2009 report, “Greater Washington’s technology cluster has the country’s highest concentration of network and computer systems administrators, database administrators, and computer programmers. The region also has six times the national average of computer scientists and four times the national average of computer software engineers.

iiGrowth LLC, an international strategy and management consulting firm, today announced that it has partnered with Leap Technologies, the leading provider of Rapid Lean Six Sigma (RLSS) consulting and training services. The partnership will bring a combined offering of world-class RLSS services and strategy driven program management consulting to corporations and enterprises in the Baltic Region. Through the strategic alliance, iiGrowth LLC will introduce its clients to Leap Technologies’ unique and innovative RLSS transformation model for enterprises.

iiGrowth CEO, Gustav Plato stated, “I have worked with Leap and their CEO Rick Tucci in the past. They are results driven and collaborative and bring a fresh perspective to business transformation. They engage leaders at all levels of the organization from the outset of a collaboration, which means that results are achieved faster and are sustainable. We are looking forward to working together again in the Baltic Region.

iiGrowth CEO, Gustav Plato, founded the Latvian Chamber of Commerce in the Americas in December 2008 to promote trade and investment between the Americas and Latvia. The Chamber is off to a strong start and this was reflected in the recent opening of the Chamber at the offices of the Northern Virginia Regional Commission (NVRC), which is a coalition of 14 locals governments in the commonwealth of Virginia. NVRC works regionally on issues including the international energy, the environment, human services and regional emergency preparedness.

LatCham founding member and Chairperson Gustav Plato praised Northern Virginia for its diversity and vibrant economy and expressed his interest in promoting mutually beneficial exchanges between Latvian businesses and businesses in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Mark Gibb, Executive Director of NVRC stated, “The co-location of the Latvian Chamber of Commerce and the Northern Virginia Regional Commission is a mutually beneficial partnership with many opportunities for collaboration on local, regional and international issues. This is a big advantage for Northern Virginia.

Building strong relationships requires creating common foundations and mutual interests. One such opportunity presented itself recently and iiGrowth CEO, Gustav Plato, also Director of the Board of the Latvian Chamber of Commerce in the Americas became actively involved in this international relationship building opportunity through the medium of music. Last year, iiGrowth visited with the Riga Business School to begin to build what we hope is a long and last relationship with this Latvian B-School. The relationship moved forward as the Director of the Business School, Janis Grevins, contacted iiGrowth earlier in the year to share their vision of visiting the United States and Canada. The reaction of course, was, “Great Idea J

Ventspils High Technology Park and iiGrowth LLC sign a Memorandum of Understanding to facilitate investment and trade between the United States and Latvia

Ivars Eglajs, the Chairman of the Board of Ventspils High Technology Park said that iiGrowth LLC would deliver strategy and international marketing services to companies located in the technology park. iiGrowth LLC is a global strategy and management consulting business with representation in the United States of America and the United Kingdom.

Gustav Plato, Chief Executive Officer of iiGrowth LLC, stated, “I am pleased to announce that we have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Ventspils High Technology Park to help Latvian, US, and UK businesses enhance their opportunities for trade and growth. We view VHTP as a market leader and market maker and are excited about working with them and companies at the park. I believe that our joint mission has profound importance, particularly in light of the current economic climate. Together, we can forge new inroads in terms of introducing potential Latvian businesses who will look to the United States and United Kingdom for new business opportunities and to US and UK businesses who are doing business or planning to do business in Latvia.

Ēriks Rūsis has joined the iiGrowth Business Advisory Council. Erik will leverage his startup experience in the EU market and guide iiGrowth in establishing its EU presence. Erik has over 20 years human resources management, general management and business development experience in multi-national, cross-border environments in Western Europe, Central and Eastern Europe, Japan and the USA. He has extensive experience in helping Latvian firms establish or expand their presence in other countries.

As CEO, Eriks opened operations in Russia and Germany for a large Latvian construction group. Serving as Business Development Manager he established offices in Stockholm, Tokyo and Berlin for a leading Latvian bank. Most recently, Eriks served as a director of the integrated solutions provider Lattelecom. He is now based near London in the UK. Eriks earned an MBA from the Thunderbird School of Global Management and a B.A. from the University of Washington.

Gustav Plato, iiGrowth CEO, is the Business Program Chair for the 2009 Supply Chain Venture Forum. This year’s conference, held in Washington DC Metropolitan Area promises to be a very exciting and will have a great mix of emerging and established businesses as well as government ministries and government owned corporations.

What is the Forum?
The 2009 US Baltic Foundation’s Supply Chain Venture Forum is a must-attend event for innovative companies looking for new business opportunities in logistics, supply chain, and emerging technologies. iiGrowth LLC and the Latvian Chamber of Commerce are leading an international organizing committee from the United States, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.Featured Speaker
Prime Minister Andrus Ansip, Republic of EstoniaWhy Attend?

The benefits for attending the forum include:

* Increase sales in the Baltic and Nordic region
* How to reach clients in Europe, Russia, and Far East
* How to enter the US market
* Build reliable global and local supply chains
* Access the latest technologies to lower operating costs and make you more competitive
* How to finance your “Big Idea

The efforts to lead an international team in developing the Supply Chain Ventures Forum to be held in Washington DC from May 13-17, 2009 are filled with adventure and excitement. More importantly the lessons learned to date, and the many more to come, have afforded us the knowledge base critical for developing international conferences and helping companies with market entry at a much lower cost threshold than they could get anywhere else.

The US Baltic Foundation asked iiGrowth to lead the development of the business program for 2009. We are very excited in how things are shaping up.

Leadership Team: We have had a great team with help from the Department of Commerce and the three Baltic Countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. We have had active participation of Ministers and Ambassadors.

Customer Participation: We have been signing up some really great companies like Raytheon whose international experience in supply chain partnerships is world class. On the other end of the spectrum we are working with small startups, such as MobileNow!, which is a provider of mobile parking solutions. It is a very diverse group and this is what will really provide great value to this conference.

Alliance Partners: We have also received ideas from our friends at the Swedish Embassy and the Swedish American Chamber of Commerce who have been helping the Latvian Chamber of Commerce that iiGrowth co-founded.

Web 2.0 Technologies: In addition, the team is also leveraging web 2.0 technology to help promote the event through tools such as Facebook and Linked in, as well as signing up companies for matchmaking events.

The neat thing is that the team, the customers, the experience of our friends, and the use of technology has afforded us the insights and approach to develop a business model, where I believe we have taken the unnecessary non-value added costs of a typical international conference and matchmaking out of the picture. That is pretty good!

If you are an emerging company, or are still in the process of maturing your business model, you probably do not have a General Services Administration (GSA) schedule. This is understandable. As a start-up, your focus was on your business concept. However, as you mature you need to begin to consider implementing the tools that will help you be competitive. One such tool is a GSA contract schedule.

As an emerging company, you probably did not consider a schedule because you did not know what it is, or how it could help you. So let us begin with the basics, and let us answer what a GSA schedule is and why you may want to have one.

Last year, the government spent over $ 35,750,000,000 through GSA Schedules. That is a lot of zeros and a lot of buying power. Here is what you need to know; if a product or service is commercially available, there is a good chance that the GSA buys it for all government agencies.

GSA is a centralized procurement and property management agency for the Federal government and manages more than one-quarter of the government’s total procurement dollars, and oversees the management of $500 billion in federal assets, including more than 8,300 government-owned or leased buildings and 170,000 vehicles. Suffice it to say, keep track of what GSA is doing as part of understanding the Federal market and how it is managing its business.

There is a variety of GSA schedule contracts (87 are shown on their web site) including ones for information technology, small business, or transportation. GSA Schedule Contract presents an excellent opportunity for a service provider, manufacturer, dealer or distributor who bases his or her business on quality, feature-rich products/services and sound business practices. Having a GSA number is like being listed catalogue or directory that has ONLY contractors who have been certified as responsible vendors by the federal government. Most federal government departments/agencies now require that their procurement offices use authorized GSA contractors. In some cases, they are not allowed to purchase goods or services from those vendors who are not GSA Schedule holders.

Being and authorized GSA Schedule holder provides you with visibility, establishes your credentials, and certifies to the buyer that you will be a ‘responsible’ contractor. GSA Schedules are available to federal buyers across the nation, and in some cases, for certain commodity areas, state and local procurement offices can purchase goods and services using the GSA contracts as well. Therefore, if you own or direct a company, this is a proven strategy to generate new business opportunities and create jobs.

Generally, getting a GSA Schedule can be pretty straightforward. That is if you understand its rules and procedures and the pages of acquisition regulations that underlie the Contract. Next, we will look at some of the requirements and restrictions that GSA imposes on businesses to help you understand what you can do and what makes sense for your organization.

We hope that this will help allay your concerns about getting a Schedule and will encourage you to take the next step and investigate the rewarding possibilities of such a contract for your firm.

2009 is about new beginnings. One of the features we are rolling out this year is an expansion of our IIGrowth blog. IIGrowth operates in collaboration with a vast network of subject matter experts. We want to bring this knowledge and insight to you with the hope that this will provide you with the Ideas needed to begin the Innovation process in your business, and set you on the path of business Growth.

This week we will kick it off with federal contracting and why we believe you need to have a contract schedule as you mature your business and business model.

In the coming days and weeks we will be adding discussions on supply chain, logistics, technology, market entry, and financial management.

It is now clear what a Rock Band goes through by playing in a new city every night. Our group was in four cities in four days. It was a whirlwind tour, but one that provided the seeds of great opportunity.

During the Baltic Tour, there were many highlights. The Department of Commerce and the US State Department were outstanding in helping to arrange meetings, providing deep insights into each country visited, and just made the trip very pleasant.

The Baltic countries including the government ministries we visited (i.e. economics, foreign ministries, and transporation) were equally hospitable and insightful. In addition, the private sector industry associations and firms we visited were open, very excited about the opportunities for cooperation on both sides of the Atlantic, and looking forward to accelerated collaboration in 2009.

Of the many highlights, one of them was the opportunity to meet with Kaspars Gerhards, the Minister of Economics, for the Republic of Latvia. It was special in that it was an opportunity to invite Minister Gerhards to join the Latvian Chamber of Commerce in the Americas.

Gustav sees LatCham as looking forward to a very active year in 2009. In particular, given the economic downturn across the globe, it is critical to focus on fundamentals. This requires breaking down economic sectors and sub-sectors and looking for areas of opportunity, building business alliances, and elevating internal business maturity.

iiGrowth’s recent trip to the Baltics (Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia) provided an opportunity to seek out and understand US opportunities in the Baltic markets and vice versa. This trip proved very fruitful to the notion of strong economic growth opportunities between the US and the Baltics.

The transportation and Information Technology sectors were two areas of focus in the Baltic tour. In summary, there are opportunities for economic development and fairly large infrastructure projects in aviation, highways, ports, and rail transportation. Information technology and innovation also highlighted the high level of capability in Baltic IT firms. The Baltic firms are ready for the US market and have a desire to seek out business partners in the United States. More about each of the sectors in the coming week.

iiGrowth is rolling out its Business Value Navigator Service Line. We have listened to the voices of many business executives in recent weeks. The questions, comments and concerns are very similar.

How bad will it get?

What should we be doing?

How should we manage our risks and investments?

Where can we get into trouble/where are we exposed?

How can we beat this thing?

iiGrowth has assembled a cadre of seasoned executives and business partners to help address these questions of how to navigate a downturn. We have identified key areas that you must look at, in order to not only survive the financial crisis, but to also use it as a catalyst for accelerating your path towards being a great and highly profitable company. The key areas that we will help you examine include the following:

iiGrowth’s experienced team will come in and rapidly triage any critical areas, augment the triage with a long term blueprint that sets forth objective and reachable targets, and an execution approach that achieves results in time-boxed 90-120 day cycles. We tell you what you need to do in 4 months and we tell you what you will need to do next Monday.

Our approach is proven. It will give you the foundation today to manage through this financial storm. Don’t wait, too much is at stake. In the coming days look for more details on our crisis management service line.

The US Baltic Foundation (www.usbaltic.org) invited IIGrowth CEO, Gustav Plato, to lead the USBF’s 2009 Business Program.

The U.S.-Baltic Foundation is an educational resource for U.S. policy-makers and the public. A national organization that unites all American friends of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, USBF develops and implements programs to strengthen democracy and free markets in the Baltics. The Foundation also introduces the Baltics to new American audiences with a series of public affairs programs.

The 2009 business program will be conducted as part of the US Baltic Confluence, which includes a Business Forum, Baltic Exchange, and Gala. The theme for the 2009 program is “Economic Growth Through Social Responsibility”. The Baltics have a long tradition of respect for nature, the environment, and sustainable development. It is part of the fabric of the Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian societies, and has its roots in over a 1000 years of Baltic traditions and practices.

Similar to the resurgance of the Baltic economies, there is a worldwide resurgance in sustainable development. Key Baltic industries including Transportation and Logistics, Information Technology, and Healthy Living will come together with US business leaders and financial investors to identify new collaborative business opportunities.

Maria Kivisild Ogrydziak, Chairman of the U.S.- Baltic Foundation also announced that Valdis Zatlers, President of Latvia, will headline a three-day series of Baltic cultural and business development events on May 14-17 at the Renaissance Mayflower Hotel, 1127 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington, DC. Sponsored by The U.S.- Baltic Foundation (USBF), the 2009 gala weekend will feature a business conference, an exchange program summit, a silent auction and black-tie gala dinner to highlight the special and growing ties between the U.S. and the Baltic States.